Peter Rees takes up a professorship at University College London

Peter Rees, the man who helped create the capital’s skyline, is to take up a professorship at University College London after nearly three decades as the City of London’s chief planner.

The high-profile 65-year-old is leaving the City Corporation this month after 29 years in the job and, having studied architecture at UCL’s Bartlett faculty, will now become its professor of places and city planning.

Rees joined the City Corporation in 1985 when, he has said, the “image of the City was that of a throng of commuters trudging to work across London Bridge, many of them still in bowler hats. Dining options were extremely limited but then most bankers’ lunches didn’t involve anything solid.”

But the deregulation of financial services helped bring about the current City skyline; as planning officer Rees saw 78 per cent of the City’s office floor-space renewed, including developments such as the Gherkin.

His previous jobs included periods with the historic buildings division of the Greater London Council and in private practice with architect Gordon Cullen.